7.15 Five wheat varieties, viz., Pusa Suketi (HS 507) for timely sown, irrigated and rain fed condition of Northern Hills Zone, Pusa Prachi (HI 1563) for high fertility, irrigated, late sown conditions of North Eastern Plains Zone (Eastern U.P., Bihar, Jharkhand, plains of West Bengal and North-Eastern States), Pusa Gaurav (HI 8691) for high fertility, irrigated, timely sown conditions of Madhya Pradesh, Pusa Basant (HD 2985) for cultivation under late and very late sown conditions of North Eastern Plains Zone (NEPZ), Pusa Bahar (HD 2967) for cultivation under conditions of rainfed and restricted irrigation in Peninsular Zone (PZ) and HD 3043 for restricted irrigated conditions of North Western Plains Zone (NWPZ) have been released and notified during 2012. Their seed multiplication and breeders seed production of these six varieties are taken up.
7.16 Single cross maize hybrid 17l with yellow, semi-dent grain with 21.93% for cultivation in Zone-I (Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu
& Kashmir and North Eastern Hill region) was released. Vivek Maize Hybrid 39, single cross, extra-early (85-90 days) for cultivation in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu &
Kashmir and North Eastern Hill region with yellow, semi-flint grain; Vivek Maize Hybrid 43, extra-early maturing (85-90 days), eastern Uttar Pradesh and eastern states and in Central Western India have been notified for cultivation.
7.17 Improvement of the elite Basmati was continued to attain specific characteristics that are in global demand.
Agricultural Research and Education 131 7.18 Moderately wilt resistant Pusa 5023 Kabuli
Chickpea, early maturing (135-140 days) variety for Delhi state and NCR region extra bold seeded (50g for 100 seeds), yield 2.5 t/ha, high protein and good hydration capacity and thus easy to cook; moderately wilt resistant Pusa 5028, for Delhi state and NCR region, first desi extra bold variety (41g for 100 seed), yield of 2.7t/ha, early maturing variety (135-140 days), large brown bold seeds having high protein content and is fast to cook with faster hydration capacity.
7.19 VL Masoor 514, moderately resistant to wilt and rust diseases, for rainfed hills of Uttarakhand, bold seeded (100 seed weight 3.05 g), brown seed coat with minute spots and globose flat seeded 21.13% protein content. VL Masoor 133 Small seeded variety of lentil having 22.28% higher yield over VL Masoor 125 and 27.12% over PL 05 over three years of testing in Uttarakhand hills under organic conditions.
It has 24.06% protein content, and was found resistant to wilt and moderately rust diseases.
7.20 High-yielding medium-tall field pea variety, VL Matar 47 with 142-155 days maturity, for timely sown rainfed areas of Uttarakhand hills with 21.04% protein content and resistant to powdery mildew and moderately resistant to rust diseases. Vivek Matar 11, the garden pea variety, attractive long green curved pods with high number of sweet and bold seeds per pod and highly resistant to powdery mildew, 132-155 days maturity, suitable for cultivation in Uttarakhand hills and also for Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir.
7.21 Mustard varieties such as Pusa Mustard 26 (NPJ 113) with an yield of 1.6 t/ha, matures in 126 days, 37.6% oil in seeds and is tolerant to high temperatures and salinity; for multiple cropping systems particularly in rice and cotton belts of Eastern UP and Eastern states of the country and Central Western India; Pusa Mustard 27 (EJ 17) matures in 118 days with seed yield of 1.53 t/
lha and 41.7% oil, moderately tolerant to high temperatures at seedling as well as maturity stage. It is suitable for multiple cropping systems and can successfully fit in between the harvest of kharif crops and sowing of wheat, vegetables
and sugarcane. It is a good substitute for toria crop. Pusa Mustard 28 (NPJ-124) matures in 107 days, yield 1.99 t/ha, 41.5% oil and possesses high temperature tolerance at seedling and grain filling stage. It fits well in multiple cropping systems. The work on ‘00’ lines in Brassica and low glucosinolate content is in progress.
7.22 A total of 36 national explorations were undertaken in 15 states and 2,713 accessions, including 570 of wild species, were collected. In the National Herbarium of Cultivated Plants, 321 herbarium specimens were added, making specimens’ holdings total to 20,560. Germplasm for long-term storage to the National Genebank comprised 4,302 accessions of the orthodox seed-species, 24 cryo-stored non-orthodox species, and 29 added to in- vitro Genebank. A total of 10,334 accessions were characterized and evaluated.
Two high-protein rice cultivars (crude grain protein content, 15-16.41%),ARC 10063 and ARC 10075, identified from the stock of Asom Rice Collections of the CRRI Rice Gene Bank have been found to have an additional slow moving globulin band. three glutelin bands are highly expressed in the high protein cultivars. they showed higher activity of Nitrate Reductase (NR) and Glutamic Dehydrogenase (GDH) at seedling (one-week-old) and maximum tillering stages (three-week-old). Forty-one clones of Saccharum spontaneum, Erianthus rufipilus, E.
elephantinus and E. arundinaceus were collected from West Bengal. S. spontaneum clones were assembled from different habitats and also from many morphotypes, excepting very tall types. S.
spontaneum accession IND101568 collected from the hill slope at 1,270 msl near Kurseong is with thick cane and broad leaves.
7.23 Microbial Genomic Resource Repository possesses a total of 1,231 genomic DNA isolates from bacterial, fungal, cyanobacterial and actinomycetes cultures; 64 different cloning, gene-silencing, Expression vectors and 92 gene sequences. In addition to this, 188 environmental samples, 6720 clones from genomic library of Mesorhizobium cicero Ca 181 strain and different strains of E. coli competent cells( DH5a, XL1 Blue, JM107, JM109) and Agrobacterium spp. have been preserved.
132 State of Indian Agriculture 7.24 During the current year, 623 tonnes of
nucleus seed, 13038 tonnes of breeder seed, 10120 tonne of foundation seed, 13084 tonnes of certified seed and 25141 tonnes of truthfully labelled seeds were produced. Under the participatory seed production programme 142 tons of quality seed of different wheat varieties were produced.
Besides, 5240 tons, 396 lakhs of planting material and 0.38 lakh of tissue culture plants of field crops were produced. the hybrid seed production technology for the first-ever Indian mustard hybrid NRC Sankar Sarson (NRCHB 506) has been standardized and seed yield of 2.4tonnes/
ha could be produced.
7.25 Many invasive pest species were a threat to the country. Preparedness for the invasion of Ug99 strain of black rust of wheat is complete by introducing resistant genes into all the cultivated wheat varieties for north-western plain zone in addition to that in peninsular zone. Yellow rust monitoring and management could reduce its impact, in spite of its presence in certain pockets. Cotton leaf roll dwarf virus (CLRDV) of Luteovirideae family was identified for the first time in Haryana and parts of Punjab. Eucalyptus gall wasp, Leptocybe invasa was accidentally introduced into India, and is a serious pest on eucalyptus, threatening Indian paper industry. Parasitoids Quadrastichus mendeli and Selitrichodes kryceri (Eulophidae: Hymenoptera) were imported from Israel for its biocontrol. Q.
mendeli could be established in all released areas of eucalyptus plantations in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, odisha, Gujarat, Haryana and Punjab.
the mitigation of Papaya mealy bug invasion using the introduced exotic insect parasitoids as well as those native ones have come up in huge population due to conservation of agri-biodiversity was complete in all the seven affected states. the impact of utilization of the exotic parasitoids of Papaya mealy bug in the last two years, making the nation to save about Rs 1500 crores by avoiding severe crop loss due to this invasive pest. Accelerate pulse production programme of the government was ably supported by effective surveillance and electronic reporting so as to contain them at initiation itself.. Integrated pest
management using new generation chemical synthetic pesticides along with biological control agents (insects, nematodes, microbial pathogens and antagonists) have provided support to the nation in achieving the targeted food and commodity production.
7.26 National Institute on Biotic Stress Management at Raipur, Chhattisgarh and Indian Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology at Ranchi, Jharkhand are approved by the government the plan and would be launched during this plan period.
7.27 A winnower cum grader for threshed paddy crop has been designed and fabricated and mounted on castor wheels to make it movable.
Provision has been made for control of feed rate and air-flow depending on the impurity level in the harvested crop, so as to improve its cleaning efficiency. Its performance has bee standardised.
7.28 A seed drill for sowing berseem seeds was developed using fine fluted roller for metering of berseem seeds. Spring loaded tines were used to open furrow for sowing the seeds. the seed rate for berseem seed was variable in the range of 4 to 30 kg/ha. Depth of sowing was controlled by the hydraulic device of the tractor.
7.29 Small sized manually operated cotton planter was developed for planting cotton seed and an adjustable cultivator was designed and developed for intercultural operation for narrow spaced cotton crop and a fertilizer applicator has been modified for equal distribution of fertilizer from both tubes. Field efficiency of manually operated small hand picker varied from 56 % to 100 % of the human labour.
7.30 In order to mechanize this labour intensive operation, a tractor operated paired row sugarcane cutter planter was designed and developed at Indian Institute of Sugarcane Research. With the help of this equipment, all the operations involved in cane planting were accomplished in a single pass of the equipment. the novel feature of the newly developed planter is its sett cutting mechanism. this mechanism facilitates free fall of the cut setts without gaps.
Agricultural Research and Education 133 7.31 Irrigation scheduling is one of the activities
that aim at effective and efficient utilization of water. In most of the farmers’ fields in India, irrigation scheduling based on soil moisture is not in practice. A simple and farmer-friendly electronic soil moisture-indicating gadget which has been named as ‘Soil Moisture Indicator (SMI)’
is developed.
7.32 Research for tribal and hill region caters to the agricultural research needs of the north-western Himalayan states of Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir. Cold tolerant phosphate solubilizing bacteria Rt5RP2 and Rt6RP were isolated from rhizoplane of wild grass grown at 3100 & 3800 msl, respectively.
Eight cold tolerant bacterial strains have been selected among the twelve elite strains for the development of eight bacterial consortia were developed.
7.33 Two patents, an improved process for the enrichment of babchi drug from seeds of Psoralea corylifolia, and the other process enabling simultaneous detection of transgene 5-enol pyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (cp4epsps) gene and CaMV 35S promoter in maize utilizing novel primers in multiplex PCR, have been granted.